Great Britain - 1794

½ Penny Token

(D & H 20 - Kent, Faversham)
Obverse - Great Britain - 1794 Reverse - Great Britain - 1794
Obverse - Arms: (Gules, [on the token vert] three lions passant guardant in pale or: dimidiating, azure, as many hulls of ships argent) The shield suspended from a knotted riband.
Legend: CINQUE PORT HALFPENNY .17-94.
Reverse - An English Round Ship with one mast at sea, with two men on deck, one of whom is blowing a horn; while two more are kneeling on the yard, one on either side of the mast. Seven fish are seen swimming in the water.
Legend: PAYABLE AT FEVERSHAM (This is the old form of spelling Faversham)
Edge: PAYABLE AT JOHN CROWS'S COPPERSMITH xox (PAYABLE should have been omitted.)
Diesinker, Dixon; manufacturer, Lutwyche. The design and execution is fair, though marred by the incorrect tincture of the dexter half of the shield, the unnecessary PAYABLE on the edge, and the extra s to the issuer's name. Four cwts. struck. Common.
 
Comments. John Crow was a freeholder with a business as a brazier and coppersmith in Faversham.
   "The King's little town of Fefresham" as it was called in Saxon times, is not a Cinque Port, but a "Member" of the town of Dover. The Arms shown on the obverse of this Faversham token are intended to be those of Sandwich which were used by the bailiff of the Cinque Ports; while the ship on the reverse is a device adopted on the corporate seals of some of the towns of the Federation.
Commercial Coins 1787-1804., p. 71-72
D & H 20 - Faversham
O: An ancient sloop. PAYABLE AT FEVERSHAM
R: Shield of arms of the Cinque Ports. CINQUE PORT HALFPENNY 17 94.
E:
A. 20
PAYABLE AT IOHN CROWSS COPPERSMITH x . x
John Crow was a brazier [edge reading in error].
Engraver—DIXON.   Manufacturer —LUTWYCHE.
 
Note that the two authorities reverse the sides of the token.